The Black Riders
The Black Riders and Other Lines is a book of poetry written by American author Stephen Crane (1871–1900). First published in 1895 by Copeland and Day, it was Crane's second published volume, following Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) and predating The Red Badge of Courage (1895). Its first printing was a limited run of 500 copies, with a few issued in vellum, and contained fifty-six short poems written in Crane's sparse, unconventional style. The untitled "lines", as Crane referred to them, were differentiated by roman numerals..McGann, pp. 92–93 History While working on his second novel, ''The Red Badge of Courage'', Crane remained prolific, concentrating on publishing stories to stave off poverty; "An Experiment in Misery", based on Crane's experiences in the Bowery, was printed by the New York Press. He also wrote five or six poems a day.Davis, p. 82 In early 1894, he showed some of his poems, or "lines" as he called them, to Hamlin Garland, who said he read "some thirty in all" with "growing wonder."Wertheim (1994), p. 98 Although Garland and William Dean Howells encouraged him to submit his poetry for publication, Crane's free verse was too unconventional for most. After brief wrangling between poet and publisher, Copeland & Day accepted Crane's first book of poems, The Black Riders and Other Lines, although it would not be published until after The Red Badge of Courage. He received a 10 percent royalty, and the publisher assured him that the book would be in a form "more severely classic than any book ever yet issued in America."Davis, pp. 92–93 The Black Riders was published by Copeland & Day in May `895; but it received mostly criticism if not abuse for the poems' unconventional style and use of free verse. A piece in the Bookman called Crane "the Aubrey Beardsley of poetry"Davis, p. 117 and a commentator from the Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean stated that "there is not a line of poetry from the opening to the closing page. Whitman's Leaves of Grass were luminous in comparison. Poetic lunacy would be a better name for the book."Wertheim (1994), p.132 In June, the New York Tribune dismissed the book as "so much trash."Wertheim (1994), p. 135 Crane, however, was pleased that his book was "making some stir".Wertheim (1994), p. 134 Analysis Although it is not certain when Crane began to write poetry seriously, he once stated that his overall poetic aim was "to give my ideas of life as a whole, so far as I know it".Bergon, p. 25 The poetic style used in both of his books of poetry, The Black Riders and Other Lines and War is Kind, was unconventional for the time in that it was written in free verse without rhyme, meter, or even titles for individual works. They are typically short in length and although several poems, such as "Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind", use stanzas and refrains, most do not.Hoffman, p. 62 Crane also differed from his peers and poets of later generations in that his work contains allegory, dialectic and narrative situations.Hoffman, p. 65 Critic Ruth Miller claimed that Crane wrote "an intellectual poetry rather than a poetry that evokes feeling, a poetry that stimulates the mind rather than arouses the heart". In the most complexly organized poems, the significance of the states of mind or feelings is ambiguous, but Crane's poems tend to affirm certain elemental attitudes, beliefs, opinions and stances toward God, man and the universe. The Black Riders in particular is essentially a dramatic concept and the poems provide continuity within the dramatic structure. There is also a dramatic interplay in which there is frequently a major voice reporting an incident seen ("In the desert / I saw a creature, naked, bestial") or experienced ("A learned man came to me once"). The second voice or additional voices represent a point of view which is revealed to be inferior; when these clash, a dominant attitude emerges.Katz, p. xxxv References * *Bergon, Frank. 1975. Stephen Crane's Artistry. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-03905-0. * Davis, Linda H. 1998. Badge of Courage: The Life of Stephen Crane. New York: Mifflin. ISBN 0-89919-934-8. *Hoffman, Daniel. 1967. "Crane and Poetic Tradition". Stephen Crane: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Maurice Bassan. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc. *Katz, Joseph. 1972. "Introduction". The Complete Poems of Stephen Crane. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-9130-4. * McGann, Jerome J. 1993. Black Riders: The Visible Language of Modernism. Princeton University Press. *Wertheim, Stanley and Paul Sorrentino. 1994. The Crane Log: A Documentary Life of Stephen Crane, 1871-1900. New York: G. K. Hall & Co.. ISBN 0-8161-7292-7. Notes External links * The Black Riders and Other Lines at Poets' Corner. Category:1895 books Category:Poetry collections Category:Modernist poetry in English Category:Black Riders and Other Lines